If you’ve ever driven Coventry Road near King Avenue in Upper Arlington, you may have noticed a house that stands out among the more traditional homes built in the 1930s.
“Georgian red brick and the traditional Tudor—it’s not one of those,” admits homeowner Melissa Fisher, who bought the home in 2000 with her husband David Pyle.
The off-white concrete house with its modern lines, flat roof and glass block windows looks more like the California coast. “It sticks out like a sore thumb in Upper Arlington now,” Fisher says, “but you can imagine that in 1937, I wonder if there was any controversy.”
The 2,119-square-foot home was built by George Nagel, who owned Greenville Gravel Co., and sought to market several uses for concrete. He and his wife lived next door at the time.
“It was supposed to be their retirement home, but my great-grandmother was tired of moving,” said Chris Snapp, Nagel’s great-grandson. Snapp says his great-grandfather built about 10 houses in Greenville, Ohio, moving the family every time a new one was finished, eventually moving to Upper Arlington.
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The three bedroom, two and a half bath home is ahead of its time in many ways. It features a bedroom on the first floor and a full bath, with additional bedrooms and another full bath upstairs. It’s a layout often sought by empty nesters today, but was atypical in most two-story homes built in Nagel’s era. Fisher, who runs her company F4Marketing, currently uses the downstairs bedroom as an office, but acknowledges it’s a home the couple can use well into retirement. “I’m going out in a pine box, feet first,” she says with a laugh.
At the time Fisher and Pyle were house hunting, they had just returned to Ohio after living in California for a decade. Despite their best efforts, Fisher couldn’t find a home she didn’t find dull or gloomy. Finally, Pyle, an engineer for Battelle, figured out that the way Upper Arlington is clad, the even houses faced south or west and got the afternoon sun, while the odd houses faced north or east and got the morning sun.
When they first visited the house one sunny afternoon, Fisher recalled, “David said, ‘This is it. She’s going to see all this natural light.’”
The house needed some attention, Fisher says, but she couldn’t stop the natural light from the living room’s glass blocks, corner windows, and round bay window. She admires the craftsmanship and “the thoughtfulness” of the house, including what she calls “Frank Lloyd Wright touches.”
Like the famed architect, Nagel has built-in seating areas, but true to his material, the curved sofas in the living room, dining area in the kitchen, and basement are all made of concrete. Beams in the ceiling, ornate cornices and the mantelpieces are made of concrete covered with plaster. Nagel had quite a few patents for concrete applications, including precast roofing sheets and reinforced cavity walls.
The house still has its original brass railings on the stairs and parquet floors in most of the first floor rooms. Steel doors remain in the basement, but most have been replaced throughout the rest of the house to prevent them from ringing when closed.
Fisher had planned to replace the original tubs during renovations, but was advised by a contractor to reglaze them rather than try to remove the steel tubs that had bonded to the concrete. The house, with its 9-and-a-half-inch walls, is so solid that Fisher says, “We call it a neighborhood bomb shelter. The story goes that George Nagel tried to promote the idea of concrete construction because it won’t burn.” and will not blow away.”
In fact, Fisher’s insurance expert had a challenging time valuing the house when the couple first bought it. His dilemma? It would cost a fortune to replace it, but he couldn’t figure out why it should be replaced.
One challenge, however, is the rubber roof, which has caused one or two leaks over time. Fisher says it’s hard to find a contractor willing to repair a roof of its kind. In fact, because of the roof, she avoided putting furniture on the second-floor deck. One concession she made was early on when her husband noted that it’s not the type of house where you can remove walls. Painting is possible, but opening rooms was not possible.
Fisher acknowledges that life in California prepared the couple to be drawn to a home that is more unique than typical Midwestern styles. Although, she says, when she’s out in the yard, people who walk their dogs often tell her how much they love the house.
Once, while Melissa was gardening, a car braked and called the woman inside her. She said she once owned the house and told her it was most like Weisenhoff-Siedlung, a European house with the modernist design popularized by Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier.
Fisher recalls the visit: “She said, ‘I only lived there for a few years, but it was the only time I felt like I owned architecture.'”
This story is from the June 2022 issue of Columbus monthly.